South suburbs team up with RTA to brainstorm ideas for improving transit access

The south-suburban villages of Matteson, Park Forest, and Richton Park recently partnered with the RTA to launch a Transportation Alternatives Study to identify barriers to mobility, and ways to overcome them.

The RTA says the study will help these ‘burbs identify and implement transportation options that for local residents and workers, complement existing transit services, prepare the villages for change, build public awareness of transportation options, and help make the communities more environmentally sustainable.

The study aims to:

• Identify areas most in need of connections to transportation including where and when residents need to travel
• Identify and review the feasibility of transportation alternatives
• Identify programming and promotions that encourage multi-modal trips
• Develop an action plan for implementation and assessment of study results

“We’ve enjoyed a longstanding partnership with the villages and are excited to support their collaborative approach to identifying innovative strategies for improving accessibility in this area of South Cook County,” said RTA executive director Leanne Redden in a statement.

The communities applied jointly in 2019 for technical assistance through the RTA Community Planning Program. RTA staff will provide the Villages with technical assistance, including data collection and analysis, public engagement, and implementation strategies. The Transportation Alternatives Study is expected to wrap up by the end of this year. The RTA says that, in addition to the partnership with Matteson, Park Forest, and Richton Park, the program has over the past two decades supported more than 200 planning and implementation projects funded with $210 million from combined RTA, local, and federal sources.